MARSH AND FOREST PERIODS. Id 



tlie chase that lie is said to have ordained the loss 

 of the eyes as the penalty for kilKng a stag. His 

 Gorman predilections were such that an old Shrop- 

 shire historian, Ordericus Yitalis (born at Atchani), 

 who was at one time chaplain to the Conqueror, 

 charges him with depopulating whole parishes that 

 he might satisfy his ardour for hunting. Prince 

 Hufus, who inherited a love of the chase from his 

 father, is made by a modern author to reply to a 

 warning given him by saying : — 



'' I love the chase, 'tis mimic war, 

 And the hollow bay of hound ; 

 The heart of the poorest Norman 

 Beats quicker at the sound." 



King John stretched the stringent forest laws of the 

 period to the utmost, till the love of liberty and 

 of sport together, still latent among the people, 

 compelled him to submit to an express declaration 

 of their respective rights. By this declaration all 

 lands afforested by Henry I. or by Eichard were 

 to be disafforested, excepting demesne woods of the 

 crown ; and a fine or imprisonment for a year and 

 a day, in case of default, was to be substituted for 

 loss of life and members. 



To prevent disputes with regard to the king's 



